#8. Jolt (Friday, September 17, 2004)
What was your best day…of having one night go much, much better than you could have ever imagined?
Two weeks into my high school career, I was still trying to make sense of this whole new infusion of new and old people, surroundings, and experiences I had just been put into (#9).
And things seemed to all be moving at an extremely fast, unreal pace. We had just had an exhausting series of soccer tryouts for three days earlier that week, and I thought I was going to make the team for sure as a (back-up) goalie, my first ever tryout success.
This Friday morning, I come in to see the team list posted outside the athletics office. And…Derek Dunlop (#116, #96, #9) is named the back-up goalie instead, to my absolute shock (and his as well…he quits the team two weeks later1). Initially, it feels like the worst day of my life; but the feeling kind of dissipates later on.
Because this Friday night is the night of the Jolt dance.
When the students’ council first announced this dance right at the start of the year, we all agreed it was lame and we weren’t going. But slowly, interest seemed to pick up between us, and at this point it appears we’ll all be going tonight – though I at least have no expectations whatsoever.
So, that night, my parents and I go to the Du Barry’s Chinese buffet (my last trip until #99) and I stuff myself completely. Then they drive me to the school for the dance.
There, it starts off slow, but I eventually gather with my classmates. Mostly my usual group, but also a few other people like Matthew Robinson-Shaw (who I recently became friends with at orientation, #114), Neil McGarry (one of my close friends in grade four, who I was meeting for the first time since), and…Nigel’s crush Darla Smith (#47, who went to a different high school).
And the party is totally fucking awesome. It’s a massive, chaotic, brilliant explosion of excitement for five full hours; like nothing I had ever experienced before. This is a high school party; and every single aspect of it feels the part. I am just out of control the entire time (the others tell me later that it had to be the smoke machines).
I slow dance with all the girls – Nora Gaudreau (#9), Carly, Chloe, plus several others – and just like that afternoon at Dodgeball (#18), it feels like there’s a little something extra to my dances with those three. I was always supposed to be the unwanted guy that all the girls felt sorry for and would never actually like. What was happening here?
To add to that even further, after our dance Chloe2 whispers to me to go have a dance with Darla – who’s sitting by herself on the side – because her “boyfriend” Nigel didn’t come, and she wants to dance with me. So I slow-dance with her, and she seems to like it. And on any other night that would’ve been the highlight for me (the full context why will become clear soon enough).
But not this night.
Because a short while later, in the middle of some rap song, Nora comes to me and asks if I want to dance. And by that, she means really dance. I don’t know what she really means, so she points to a group of juniors and seniors dancing…
Holy crap.
Side Note: Some more context on Nora. I had known her since fifth grade; and she was the type of person who was just really good at everything – schoolwork, sports, social, etc. She was also one of the few people who had always been nice to me (#18, #9), even through all my awkwardness and crying.
We do that for quite a while, and have a good time doing it – with me not knowing what any of this really means, except that it’s totally scandalous. Of course, this attracts the attention of all of our friends. I probably get some major props from the guys, but it’s all kind of lost in the shuffle.
I had told my parents to pick me up at ten (not expecting a wild night), but then call them back to come at eleven, and then call again to tell them twelve. I stay right to the very end.
Best (non-drinking) night ever. Literally.
- Because: (1) he was not very good; (2) and the sophomore team members were not the nicest in letting him know that. For some unknown reason, I never lobby to be named in his place, and it seems the team goes the season without a back-up.
- Whose boyfriend again seems to be absent, giving me some idea in my head that I have a shot.